


Story of Us

by andprosper



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-03
Updated: 2011-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-26 19:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andprosper/pseuds/andprosper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble written using “Story of Us” by the Taylor Swift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Story of Us

“What on Earth are you so excited about?”

“It’s not on Earth, Amy!”

Amy rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hip while the Doctor ran around his console. “You know what I meant. Are you going to tell us what’s going on?”

“It would be nice to know, Doctor.”

The Doctor stopped pressing on knobs and pushed his view screen away. He looked around the center of the Tardis to see Rory looking at him, confused, and Amy with her arms over her chest.

“Well…”

I used to think one day we'd tell the story of us

The Doctor scratched his neck and looked back at the console. “I think I picked up a timelord signature.”

“Doctor…you do remember what happened last time you thought there were still timelords, right?” Amy said reproachfully.

“I know, but I’m going to follow it anyways,” he went back to setting the coordinates, but at a much slower pace.

“Why?”

“I can’t give up hope, Amy.”

Amy dropped her arms and looked at him for a long, silent moment. She glanced back at Rory before stepping forward and putting her hand on his shoulder. “All right. Let’s track this renegade timelord. Do you know who it is?”

“I think I do, yeah.”

How we met and the sparks flew instantly

“Well?” Amy pressed, looking at the viewscreen now.

“He’s called the Master.”

“The Master?” Her lips twisted into a light smile. “I’m starting to think you have the tame nickname amongst your people, Doctor.”

The Doctor’s eyes smiled and he pushed the Tardis onto the trail. “You seem surprised.”

“Never pegged you as the humble one,” Rory commented from behind them.

“So, how do you know him?”

“We were childhood friends.”

People would say they're the lucky ones.

“Oh,” Amy’s red hair bounced as she watched the Doctor scramble around the Tardis. “That sounds nice.”

I used to know my place was a spot next to you

“Well, he’s tried to kill me several times since then…” the Doctor trailed off in thought before picking up again, loudly, “but, last time he sacrificed himself to save me and the entire planet! So, I think a little forgiveness is in order if we can find him!”

Now I'm searching the room for an empty seat

“Why did he try to kill you?”

“Let’s not focus on the negative, Rory! Think positive!”

“Is he going to try and kill you if we find him?”

'Cause lately I don't even know what page you're on.

Honestly, the Doctor wasn’t quite sure where he would stand with the Master. Would he be an enemy? A friend? “I honestly don’t know, Rory.”

Oh, a simple complication

“Well, that certainly doesn’t sound good.”

The Tardis lurched to a stop with a loud creaking noise. “So, where are we, Doctor?” Amy sidled up beside him. “Somewhere glamorous?”

The Doctor fidgeted slightly as he looked at the screen. “Decidedly not.”

“Well, let’s go have a look anyways,” Amy said and started walking towards the door.

“Amy! Hold on!” The Doctor jumped below the deck and started shifting through old storage. He finally found a pair of glasses and quickly found another. “Both of you wear these,” he handed the glasses up before joining them.

“3-D glasses, Doctor?” Rory asked.

Amy put them on immediately and then smiled. “Groovy.”

“Yes, 3-D glasses. 3-D glasses are cool,” he smiled and started walking towards the door. He pulled an old pair out of the pocket of his jacket. “The skies of Simia KK98 can cause people to hallucinate. So can the landscape, actually. It is, in fact, very groovy. I always hallucinated about unicorns. Never figured out why…” perhaps he just enjoyed the idea of the human imagination. Although a unicorn was a rather poor example, but he enjoyed the idea anyways… “Right! Let’s go!”

The trio stepped outside and the Doctor’s lips twitched, as if he didn’t know whether to smile or frown. The landscape and sky appeared as if they were a part of a galaxy-sized kaleidoscope with twisting and merging colors still slithering across the scene in front of them. “The planet’s surface is made of a highly reflective material. The moving colors are caused by the mixing and separation of gases in the planet’s atmosphere.”

“Is it safe to breathe?”

“Oh, yes. The timelords took care of that.”

“How?”

The Doctor didn’t really hear the question – partially because he didn’t care to answer, and partially because he was becoming absorbed in his search for the missing timelord. His eyes grazed over the horizon and he saw a group of looming black towers against the psychedelic landscape. “This way,” he started walking and didn’t bother to look back to see if Amy and Rory were following. “This was once a Gallifreyan colony.”

“Gallifrey is where you’re from?” Rory asked.

“Yes, the planet of the timelords!” The Doctor clapped his hands together. “They colonized this planet; very pretty, but not very practical. Most went mad here.”

“What if this…’Master’ has gone mad?”

Miscommunications lead to fall-out.

“Then I have to save him.”

When they arrived at the gates to the only city on the planet, the silence was deafening. It was empty and had fallen into disrepair from disuse. The tall buildings were drab and crumbling, while the streets were overgrown with fungi. “Don’t eat any of that stuff.”

“I assure you, Doctor, I wasn’t tempted,” Amy said lightly.

The largest building in the city was a fortress, with a six-armed statue of the president Rassilon guarding it. Seeing the president made the Doctor cringe.

So many things that I wished you knew

The Master had saved him, saved the planet the Doctor had loved so much. Had it been worth it?

So many walls that I can't break through.

He stood in front of a large pair of doors and pointed his green-tipped sonic screwdriver at the door, it swung open with a loud creak and they slipped into the dark room. At the center of the empty area, there was a lone pedestal. On the pedestal was a bottle that was giving off an eerie glow.

“Oh,” the Doctor’s eyes widened. “Oh!” He exclaimed and rushed forward. “This is….this is brilliant!” He said happily, a smile finally breaking onto his face.

“What is it?” Amy stood opposite of him, looking at the bottle.

“It’s a universe!”

“A universe in a bottle?”

“I had a friend a long time ago who knew how to do this!” He let out a loud bark of laughter. “It makes so much sense!”

“Doctor, how do we get in the bottle?” Rory stood farther than the other two, watching the bottle with poorly hidden skepticism.

“Back to the Tardis!” The Doctor shouted and started running back to the police box. When he was back inside, he didn’t stop running. He was running around the console like a madman. “All I have to know is the bottle exists. Bottled universes were created by a timelord and they were meant for Tardis travel.” He put in the coordinates and the Tardis whirred. When she finally came to a halt, the Doctor started typing things into the computer. “Excellent! The signal is much stronger! We’re going to follow!”

 

Next chapter.

“This is it!” The Doctor stepped out of the Tardis onto a crowded street. “Thalia! What a beautiful planet! Well, satellite, really, but it is bigger than many actual planets. It’s practically a planetoid.”

“Doctor, do you know what this Master even looks like?”

How'd we end up this way?

“Not really. Not if he’s regenerated. But I’ll know him if I see him,” the Doctor assured the couple with him. “Can’t believe he’d end up here. The Master always hated people…if he wasn’t controlling them, at least.”

See me nervously pulling at my clothes and trying to look busy

The Doctor watched the people along the streets carefully and his hearts began beating faster. He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or he was simply nervous. “There he is!” The Doctor panicked momentarily and grabbed the couple with him. He tried to look as if he was window shopping with Rory and Amy.

“Where?” Amy looked over the Doctor’s shoulder down the street.

“I’m not sure. But I know he’s there. I sensed it.”

And you're doing your best to avoid me.

“I wonder if he’s that good-looking one,” Amy muttered while the Doctor stared furiously at the window. “Can timelords regenerate into the opposite sex?”

“Yes, they can.”

“Maybe he’s that lady in the jumpsuit,” Amy speculated. “Or that redheaded man there. I do like redheads,” she grinned and the Doctor finally looked with her.

I started to think one day I'd tell the story of us

There were so many men and women crowding the street, it was hard to see any of the people Amy was attempting to point out. However, there was only one redheaded man in the vicinity.

How I was losing my mind when I saw you here

And that’s when the Doctor sensed it. His chest tightened and he must have stopped breathing. The redhead must have felt the stare, or sensed the presence of another timelord because he raised his gaze from the piece of technology to look directly at the Doctor.

But you held your pride like you should've held me.

He stopped walking and stared openly. The Doctor started moving towards him. He wasn’t sure whether he should smile or cry. He wasn’t sure what he could possibly say to the other timelord.

Oh, I'm scared to see the ending

“Doctor,” the man greeted quietly.

“Master,” was all the Doctor could muster for a moment, “umm…this is Amy. And Rory,” he introduced the people near him, for lack of something better to say. Or, rather, for the inability to say something better.

“See you’re still collecting human girls,” the Master commented lightly.

“Actually, uh, this is my human girl,” Rory said tentatively and put his arm around Amy’s waist.

Why are we pretending this is nothing?

“Of course,” the Master’s lips almost curled into a slight smile. He turned his attention back to the Doctor, his bright eyes matching the brown.

“I see you’re ginger.”

“Ah, yes, I forgot how much you loved the idea of red hair,” the Master tilted his head slowly. “You know you could just dye your hair.”

“I’d rather not.” Why couldn’t he say something?

I'd tell you I miss you but I don't know how

The four of them stood quietly as the crowd hurried along past them. Rory opened his mouth a few times, as if to say something, but noticed the timelords staring at each other intently.

He wanted to tell the Master he wanted him back. He wanted to say he wished for nothing more than having the Master travel with him. Tell him he missed the Master’s intellect, his scathing sense of humor, his mind, his taste…

I've never heard silence quite this loud.

Could the Master possibly feel the same way? The man had been so obsessed with the thought of killing the Doctor for years. But the Doctor had seen some good in him. He had seen there was some part of the Master who still cared for him.

This is looking like a contest

And here he was – right in front of him. The man never seemed to be able to die permanently. He had long since run out of regenerations, but each time, the Doctor felt as if he was losing the Master forever.   
How could he tell the Master that?

Of who can act like they care less

“Are you going to say anything, Doctor?” the Master prodded, an eyebrow raised.

The Doctor swallowed dryly. “You look good. It’s a nice regeneration.”

“Is that it?”

But I liked it better when you were on my side.

“Well,” the Doctor was uncharacteristically hesitant. “I would like to say thanks. For everything.”

The battle's in your hands now

“I wouldn’t thank me. I didn’t do anything for you.”

“I know.”

But I would lay my armor down

The Doctor winced, tired from the distance he was receiving from the Master. Hadn’t they spent most of their lives in each other’s thoughts? Couldn’t the Master ever say anything to him?

If you said you'd rather love than fight.

“So, Master, where are we going to pick up again?”

“Where we always do. I’m going to give you a head start and then I’ll try to kill you.”

The Doctor sighed and looked the Master in the eyes. “Hasn’t that plan gotten a bit tired?”

“Then I’ll forgo the head start.”

So many things that I wished you knew

“Actually, I was hoping we could pick up where we left off on Gallifrey.”

“You mean leaving me to commit genocide?”

“No,” the Doctor said quietly, “I mean laying the red fields of your estates, our minds touching, talking about our dreams. And when the sun set on the horizon…”

“That’s enough, Doctor.”

But the story of us might be ending soon.

“Don’t you miss it, Koschei?” The Doctor moved closer to the newly regenerated timelord. Someone brushed past the Master roughly, knocking his shoulder, but the Master didn’t move his gaze from the Doctor.

Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room and we're not speaking

The Doctor held his breath as he watched the Master’s unreadable expression.

And I'm dying to know is it killing you like it's killing me, yeah?

“Doctor, there is some other option I have been contemplating.”

I don't know what to say, since the twist of fate when it all broke down

The Doctor, breathless and silent, waited for the Master to continue.

“We don’t pick up where we left off. Anywhere. I don’t want you around anymore. Not chasing you. Not befriending you. Not…not loving you.”

And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now.

The Master turned on his heel and walked away from him. The Doctor watched him leave, feeling alone on the crowded street. On this satellite. In this little bottled universe.

The end.


End file.
